Baylor University celebrates 175 years

A proud history

The seed that became Baylor was planted in the early 1840s, when the Texas Baptist Education Society established a goal of founding “a Baptist university in Texas upon a plan so broad that the requirements of existing conditions would be fully met and that would be susceptible of enlargement and development to meet the demands of all ages to come.”

On February 1, 1845, Republic of Texas President Anson Jones signed the act of Congress that officially established Baylor University, named after pioneer Texas judge R. E. B. Baylor.

Originally located in Independence, Texas, and personally supported by legendary Texas Gov. Sam Houston, Baylor conferred its first degree in December 1854, when Stephen Decatur Rowe graduated from the institution. He was followed the next year by Mary Kavanaugh Gentry, Baylor’s first female graduate.

In 1886, the university moved north to Waco, where it consolidated with Waco University. Working in close collaboration with Texas Baptists, Baylor’s leaders made the bold move to better position the institution for growth and service, leaving a part of the state that had become geographically isolated and placing it in the “Heart of Texas,” where resources and shared aspirations were more abundant.

Leadership and growth

During the ensuing decades, Baylor University has flourished in its Central Texas home.

In June 1920, Baylor observed its 75th anniversary, or Diamond Jubilee, with a grand celebration on campus. It was a watershed moment that came during Samuel Palmer Brooks’s long tenure as Baylor’s president. At the time, Brooks was in the middle of a far-reaching reorganization and expansion of the university’s academic structure that would transform Baylor from a small college into a full-fledged university.

On November 1, 1963, Baylor’s board of trustees voted to integrate Baylor University. The following years would see notable achievements by Baylor’s African-American students. In the 1966 season-opener for the Baylor football team, on September 10, Baylor running back John Hill Westbrook broke the Southwest Conference’s color barrier by becoming the first African American to take the field. The next year, Robert Gilbert and Barbara Walker became Baylor’s first two African-American graduates.

Additionally, Dr. Vivienne Malone-Mayes became Baylor’s first African-American professor when she joined the faculty in 1966. A Waco native who is recognized as the fifth African-American woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in mathematics, she was named Baylor’s outstanding faculty member of the year in 1971, and taught at the university until 1994.

Positioned to serve Texans

Looking back at the history of Baylor, from its roots as the first coeducational university west of the Mississippi to the birth of the state’s first law school and the nation’s first homecoming celebration, it is clear that Baylor has forged its own path.

Unique among its peer institutions across the state, Baylor has built upon the cornerstone of Christian faith firmly set in place by our founders to become a nationally ranked research university.

With its flagship Waco campus of more than 1,000 acres along the banks of the Brazos River and a diverse student body of more than 18,000 from all 50 states and more than 90 countries, Baylor continues to build upon its foundation of Christian commitment and academic excellence.

Baylor is actively pursuing designation as Texas’s next Carnegie-classified Research 1 (R1) university. Currently only nine universities in Texas produce the impactful research that meets this standard. Research universities impact a state in multiple ways, from knowledge expansion and innovation to economic development and impact on solutions to societal problems. A recent survey conducted by Texas Business Journals, in partnership with Baylor, found that business leaders in the four largest Texas markets believe the state needs more research universities to remain competitive. In addition, almost 80% of respondents believe research experience better prepares college graduates for the workforce, making a positive impact on the state’s need for highly skilled employees.